The Tale of Two Tales
by Lil Bre
Summary: Young Tom Collins is the most famous athlete in all of Scarsdale with many secrets that should never get out. But then a new boy comes into his senior and choas ensures. CollinsAngel
1. Chapter 1

_Hello! Wow… I'm in the RENT section of wow. Well, lets get this disclaimer over with!_

Disclaimer: I do not own RENT. If I did… I wouldn't be writing this story… cuz it's mine. Besides, can't steal from the Ghost of Jonathon Larson. He'd never leave you alone. Yeah….

Chapter 1:

"Okay, this is what happened… I was on my way to school this morning when an UFO abducted me and my bike. After they realized I have some sort of magical powers, they asked me to save their doomed home planet from invaders that were killing their men and taking their women and children. Afterwards they brought me back to earth and placed me on the roof of the school just as the tardy bell rung to go to class. And in my honor the aliens dropped the invaders' blue blood all over the building. They kept my bike so that they will always remember me for years to come."

"Thomas Collins that is the biggest lie I've ever heard roll off your tongue!" The principal slams her hands on the desk in frustration. "Now give me the real reason why you're late to school, the school is covered in blue paint, and you're practically covered in spots of blue paint." She sat back down in her seat, bracing herself for the far-out response.

"Um…. I slept in because I was up all night pouring blue paint all over the school and the paint is permanent so it didn't come off all the way…" the teenage boy admits. Tom receives a smack on the head with a pile of rolled up papers by the principal. "Ow…" Tom whines as he rubs his head.

"Tom, why do you do this me?" the woman questions as she gazes out her window. Well, as much as she could see due to the dry blue paint that covered 87 of her scenery. "Just because I'm your cousin doesn't mean you can take advantage of my authority. What would Aunt Jané think?"

"Don't bring Mom up. I hate the 'What Would Your Mother Think' talk." Tom grumbles as he leans back in his chair. "Besides, the only reason I get in trouble is just to see your smiling face a couple of times a week."

"Nice try." She whacks him with the papers again. "You'll be staying after school everyday until the school you vandalized is repainted back to its original color."

"By myself, 'Tasha!" Tom exclaims.

"Unfortunately no," she gave her little cousin a devious smirk as she press a button on her intercom, "send them in."

_Aw hell, she caught them…_he thought as he covers his face with his favorite beanie. He peaks out of the corner of the hate and saw his friends, Mark Cohen and Roger Davis, sit down in seats next to him.

"Care to explain Mr. Cohen? Mr. Davis?" She rests her head on the back of her hands, waiting for one of the blondes to respond.

"Okay, this is what happened…" Roger decided to speak up. "We were on our way to school this morning on our bikes when an UFO abducted-"

SMACK!

"DO YOU MORONS SHARE THE SAME BRAIN OR SOMETHING!" She shrieks as the rolled-up paper made contact to both Roger and Mark's head.

"We might do, Mrs. Blake," Mark answers, which gives him another whack on the head.

"Hey, you used the same excuse, Collins?" Roger looks over to his friend. "It took me all morning to think of that in case of something like this…"

"Really? I was just making it up as I go," Tom chuckles. "What a pure coincidence!"

"Just for your stupid stories, you guys will be painting on Saturdays as well on both school buildings until they're finished. Until then, be sure to bring extra lunches and old clothes because you guys will be painting for a good while. Your punishments will start tomorrow. You're dismissed, have a nice day." Mrs. Blake says as she sits back down in her chair and began reading the crumbled papers she used to whack the boys.

"Both schools! We only destroyed one!" Roger protested. True, it was going to take a while just to repaint just _one _of the buildings. Both of the buildings were old, but they are huge. They're three stories high and each are about half an acre wide so that it could hold the 3,000+ students that is enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School.

"It wouldn't look so nice if one school got a pain job and the other one didn't, now would it?" She smirks and she shoos the boys out of her office. As the three exits the three are greeted by their other friend, Benjamin Coffin III.

"So, how'd it go?" he asks.

"We have to paint both buildings everyday until it's done," Mark answers as the four of them starts on their way to class. Benny just laughs.

"Told you guys not to do it," Benny lectures. "One day your cousin's not going to be bail you out of your stupid pranks and stunts, Collins."

"You're the one who hold me to use the blue paint!" Collins accuse putting his beanie back on his head.

"_I _was being _sarcastic_," he defends.

"Well your 'sarcasm' got us working for the next three months," Roger poked the bald teen's chest roughly.

"Don't put all this on me, Davis!" The two begins shoving each other into the walls and lockers. Then Collins, being the strong quarterback he was, gets the two in headlocks.

"AMAZING GRACE HOW SWEET THE SOUND!" Collins sings as loud and out-of-tune as humanly possible hold the two boys against their wills. "THAT SAVE THE RICH LIKE MEEEEEEEE!" Knowing neither could get of their friend's impracticable grip, they give up with the struggling. "Cool it peoples and go to class. Kay?" The two mumble in some form or fashion of an 'Okay' and Collins releases them. The two give each other a glare before they all separate their ways, Roger going to Algebra, Mark and Collins to History, and Benny to Business Tech.

"You think they'll ever get along again?" Mark asks Collins.

"After that April incident, I doubt it. I'm surprise they still come of 20 feet with each other," Collins replies jokingly. As Mark shook his head and stared at the tiled floor, someone ran into him and the person dropped everything he was holding.

"I'm soo sorry!" the boy apologizes panicky as he picks up all of his papers and books. Mark and Collins helps him pick the objects up and hands it to him. "Thanks." He glances over at Collins and quickly turns away. "You… um… wouldn't happen to know where the office is would you?"

"Hang a right to the next hall and the office is to your left,' Collins directed.

"Thank you," he says meekly as he heads towards that direction. The two kept going to their class when Mark noticed that Collins wasn't in his high spirits anymore.

"What's bothering you all of a sudden?"

"If you didn't know me, you think I would be a bully or something?" Collins asks out of the blue, leaving his blonde friend dumbfounded.

"What makes you think about something like that?"

"That kid didn't even look at me, like he was scared or something." True, Tom Collins is not the type of person to hurt a living creature unless necessary, but with his reputation of being the star quarterback captain, Major in JROTC, one of the biggest troublemakers the school has ever had, and one of the brightest students in history, anyone who doesn't know him would think of him as jock and a bully. The female population has been trying their hardest to get him to be theirs, but unbeknownst to everyone but his friends, grandmother, parents, and cousin, he was gay.

"Collins, you're a 6'1" all-American football star. You run the JROTC like you're Hitler and you're the future valedictorian. Honestly, if I didn't know you I'd kind of be afraid of you myself," Mark answers truthfully.

"That's why I love ya so much!" Collins perks up again and puts Mark in a friendly headlock. The two finally made it back to their history class and they sat back into their assigned seats.

Lunch rolls around and the gang met back at their regular lunch table.

"I'm gonna go get something at the vending machine!" an enthusiastic brown-hair girl announces as she rises from her spot on the bench. "Anyone need anything?"

"Yeah Maureen, can you get me a Dr. Pepper?" Collins asks as he hands her his money.

"No problem!" Maureen rushes out of the cafeteria. Mere moments later she returns with drinks and junk food in hand. "BACK! What's my time?"

"Your time….?" Benny asks questioningly.

"No one was timing you you dork," Roger answers.

"Some friends you guys turned out to be!" Maureen drops all the snacks onto the table and falls to her seat as dramatically as humanly possible. "How am I suppose to get on the track team if no one bothers to time me?"

"Because they kicked you off the track team for the past two years and they banned you permanently for tripping up the runners to win," Roger answers once more. Collins chuckles as he watch his friend continue to bicker with Mark trying to stop it. He looks beyond them and notices the boy from earlier was surrounded by guys on the football team. He couldn't hear what they was saying to him, but when he saw his teammate, Jacob Riley, knock over the boy's tray, to Collins that was the last straw.

"Collins, where are you going?" Benny notices his friend get up and leave. He witnesses his best friend's first random act of violence when Collins shoves Jacob into another football player.

"What the hell, Tom?" Jacob says defensively.

"Some welcome party you dumbasses turned out to be," Collins growls.

"Have you seen this guy, Tom?" another teammate Daniel Banks spoke up. "He's a frickin' queer. We got to show people like him who runs shit here."

"Bullshit is what you run. Come on, you can sit with us." Collins gives Jacob and his team the evil eye as he steers the boy towards his table.

"You didn't have to help back there…" the boy says quietly.

"I can't stand them sometimes. Besides, it'll give me a good excuse to give them extra exercises at Friday's practice," Collins replies smirking evilly while the boy gives him the 'What-I-Get-Myself-Into' look. "What's your name anyways?"

"I'm Angelo. Angelo Schunard."

"Well Angelo, you can hang out with me and my friends if you want." Angelo replies with a small nod and the two went back to the table. Collins introduced Angelo to the group and Maureen and Angelo hit it off right away. The rest of the lunch period, the group got to know the new member and Angelo got to know the group.

_Well… that finishes this chapter o.o I hope you guys likey. Review and tell me how you like it!_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Okay… I know I haven't actually... updated… in a while. That's my fault. Yeah…. But hey look on the bright side; you guys get a new chapter :D SPLEEE! So here you go and enjoy yourself and stuff like that okay?**_

Chapter 2: The Not-So-Happy Home

Angelo walked out of his final class, History, for the day. He sighed in relief that no one bothered him because he knew good and well that he wouldn't be able to defend himself. He tried his hardest to hold on to his books as students of all shapes and sizes continuously bumped into him as he was the only one walking on the correct side of the hallway. When he finally made it out of the school alive, he looked around for any of the familiar faces he met at lunch. He remembered the jock-looking boy told him to meet up with them around the large oak tree. Although there were trees scattered all over the front schoolyard, he instantly noticed the largest tree that loomed well over the three-story school. Sadly, he saw no one underneath the tree waiting on him.

_They're probably late,_ he thought to himself. _It is a big school after all. I barely got out of there alive. _Angelo sat down under the large shady tree and pulled out his sketchbook as he waited for his new friends. He flipped through the pages until he found a fresh blank page just waiting to be drawn on. He pulled a pencil out from his pocket and started on some random doodling.

Only five or so minutes have passed when he finished his drawing of the school. As he started to flip to another page, he heard a voice say, "Hey, I wasn't finished look at that." Angelo looked up and saw Roger Davis hanging upside down in front of him. Angelo let a yelp and kicked Roger in the back as he rushingly got up from the ground. Roger hissed as the boy's hoes made contact of his back and he fell off the branch he was hanging from and made contact to the dirty ground.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Angelo panicked as he tried to help Roger up. Roger refused his help and got up by himself.

"No need to worry, Angelo," Collin's husky voice said as he gave Roger a whack on his back. Roger winced as the jock whacked his sore spot. "He knows better. It was only time when someone reacted to his nonsense."

"You mean Roger got his just desserts and I missed it?" Benny remarked as he, Mark, and Maureen made it to the tree.

"Screw you, Coffin!" Roger growled as he popped his spine back into place. Angelo looked down depressingly at the ground as if he wanted to apologize so badly. As he was about to say sorry once more, he felt a hand cup his shoulder, slightly shake him, and held him close to his toned chest.

"Like I said, there's no need to apologize, he'll be fine." Collins looked down at the Spanish boy with a smile. Angelo couldn't help but have a light shade of pink appear on his cheeks.

"O-o-okay," Angelo stuttered as Collins let go of him.

"Hey guys, isn't today the start of your punishment?" Maureen asks Collins.

"Oh crap, that's right," Collins said. As soon as he said that, Principal Blake walked out through the doors of Booker T. Washington High School and looked around her campus.

"_**THOMAS C. COLLINS!!!!!**__" _Her voice echoed all over the half acre campus. The scream was so deadly and threatening sounding that Roger's once spiked hair stood straight up on his head (even after the style was damaged from the fall).

"Guys, she seems mad," Mark spoke softly to Collins and Roger.

"To the tree!" Collins declared as the three ran to the oak tree and ran straight up it, completely disappearing from existence. Moments later Principal Blake approached Benny, Angelo, and Maureen with her hands on her hips.

"Mr. Coffin and Ms. Johnson, where are your other buddies?" she asked. Benny and Maureen just looked at each other and shrugged. Angelo just stayed in the background and prayed that the principal didn't question him. Mrs. Blake then turned her attention to Angelo whom flinched a little.

"Are these the people you decided to hang out with, Mr. Schunard?"

"Y-y-y-yes ma'am," he replied nervously. She quietly snorted, leaned in close enough for them hear and said, "I'd advise you not to. Bunch of trouble makers if you ask me." With that, she turned a 360 and left the tree area.

"Well, we better be heading off," Benny stated as he and Maureen picked their bags off the ground.

"Wait, what about the other guys?" Angelo asks as he too grabbed his bag and decided to walk with them.

"They'll be fine. This kind of stuff happens all the time," Maureen answered smirking as the three left the campus and started heading home.

"A little _too_ often," Benny mumbled.

"Oh come on Benz," Maureen hooked her arm around the bald teen's neck, "you know you find this as just as amusing as I do." He just shook his head in disapproval, although secretly he kind of did enjoy a few of the misadventures he and guys have. Maureen then turn her attention to Angelo, whom was walking a little ways behinds them. "Hey Angelo, where do you live?"

"Just a couple more blocks from here," he replied. Maureen squealed with excitement.

"Seriously?! So do I!" She started jumping circles around Angelo as she was so excited to have a friend to live nearby. "These guys have to take the bus to get home every day. And the closest person is Benz and he's no fun at all."

"Hey!" Benny defended.

"Oops, made it to your corner of where we depart, ye ol' Benjamin," Maureen said dramatically as the three reached the corner where Benny had to go in a separate direction to reach his home.

"Must you do that everyday?" Benny just shook his head and started separating from the two. "See you guys tomorrow. Nice meeting ya, Angelo."

"You too. See ya!" Angelo and Maureen gave a way and started on their way home. The two continued on and began to talk about the most random possible. Soon enough, they reached Maureen's house. "So this is where you live?"

"Yep. Wanna come in?"

"Not today. My mom probably wants to know how my day went and stuff like that."

"Okay no problem, I completely understand! See you in the morning new buddy!" Maureen enthusiastically waved as she walked to her front porch and went inside. Angelo sighed in relief that they reached Maureen's house before they reached his own. What would his father think that his first friend was a girl again? He lived only five more houses down from Maureen so his solo trip wasn't that long. Once he made it inside the house, his father was already home, in the living room reading the newspaper.

"So you finally decided to come home, boy?" Mr. Schunard grunted as he flipped the page of the paper.

"Yes sir," Angelo replied sullenly. "A few new guys I met today showed me around the school."

"What _kind_ of guys?" his father put down the paper and glared suspiciously at his teenage son.

"Well, one's a computer whiz, one is I believe a rocker, one a genius, and another I think is a jock" Angelo answered trying to remember his guy friends.

"A jock you say? So you made a jock friend and not get beat up by him for once. Finally." Angelo just sighed and went upstairs to his room. Just because he prefers knowing fashion trends over a football plays, his father has somewhat shunned him out of his life until he "came to his senses". His mother continuously defends him just saying that he was just showing his feminine side and t was just a stage he was going through. He knew what he was, and his parents can't tell him differently (even though they do not know…. Yet.). He was the reason why they had to move in the first place. He was getting harassed and beaten up in school because the student body didn't accept homosexuals. Fortunately, his parents didn't find out about it and they assumed that he was too passive aggressive for his own good. This is why he decided to have a fresh new start and make sure that no one finds out, unless one of his new friends noticed his blushing when Collins semi-hugged him.

Collins. He was soo cute.

_No. NO! Bad thoughts!_ Angelo screamed in his head as he slumped on his bed holding his head in frustration. _I shouldn't think about him like that. He's probably not even gay… though it would be nice if he was…. No! Stop it you stupid mind!! Bad! Bad, bad, BAD! _Angelo just laid in his bed until it was time for dinner.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Blake finally caught Collins, Roger, and Mark hiding in the Chemistry lab and forced the trio to start on their punishment. After the three were finished scrapping the blue paint off of the windows, Mrs. Blake gave them permission to rest. The trio decided to go to the drink machine and gave a few sodas and rested there.

"Man Collins," Roger sighed as he slumps to the sidewalk, "your cousin is a real slave driver. Can't believe we have to do this on Saturdays, too."

"I know," Collins slid to the ground next to his rocker friend, "but deep down, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep-"

"We get the point," Mark and Roger say.

"Anyways, deep down, she's a good person with good intentions. She says something about that she'll thank us later when the time is needed… or something like that…."

"Besides, the faster we get done, the faster we get out of here," Mark commented. Rogers and Collins agreed. So the three got up from the ground and started to head back their work site. "By the way, what you guys think of the new kid, Angelo?"

"He's cool. A little nervous though," Roger shrugged as he paced his hands behind his head. "If he stays with us long enough, he'll stop all of that nervousness nonsense."

"I wonder if he's available…" Collins wondered out loud. Roger and Mark just looked at their friend questionly. "What?"

" 'I wonder if he's _available_'?" Roger repeated.

"Yea, so?"

"What if he's not like that, Colls?" Mark asked.

"Hey, a guy can dream can't he?" Collins replied as the three went back to work.

_**DONE! So how you guys like it? It's just a bunch of drabble right now, but I'll get to the good parts soon enough. **__**Review or whatever.**__** Enjoy :) Thanks for reading!**_


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